


Getting Away With Murder

by falsteloj



Category: Young Dracula
Genre: Guilt, Jealousy, M/M, Teen Angst, Teen Crush, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-15
Updated: 2012-09-15
Packaged: 2017-11-14 07:33:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/512839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/falsteloj/pseuds/falsteloj
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Robin sees something he shouldn't have; bit angsty. This was inspired by 'Getting Away With It' by Anne Cassidy, in both subject and writing style.</p><p>(I have a ton more YD stuff - you can find story summaries, etc, by clicking <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/512861/chapters/27201609">HERE</a>.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Getting Away With Murder

"I thought you were going round Vlad's tonight?"  
  
Robin shrugged, keeping his eyes on the television and not on his mam. "He's busy."  
  
Vlad had been his best friend for nearly three years, ever since he had moved to Stokely with his family. Vlad had been a geek back then, always buttoning his school shirt right the way up to the collar, and handing all his homework in on time. Nobody else had wanted to be friends with him.  
  
But Robin had known something they didn't. Had worked it out the very first time he met Vlad.  
  
Vlad was a vampire.  
  
Not that you would have believed it then. He wouldn't even get his fangs until he turned sixteen, Vlad had had to explain. Robin had promised he wouldn't tell anyone and, from that day on, Vlad had spent all his spare time with him.  
  
Lately though everything had changed. Vlad was fifteen now and looked more and more like a true vampire every day. His movements were always easy and graceful, and whenever they passed the girls in the playground they giggled and fussed with their hair.  
  
"They're eyeing me up again," he would tell Vlad, puffing his chest out and trying to make a joke of it, "I'm irresistible, I am." Vlad would laugh and shake his head, and tell him not to be so vain. They both knew the girls were really looking at Vlad but it didn't seem to matter, Vlad never smiled back at them.  
  
At least, he didn't until one of them took the initiative. Kelsey Peterson had walked straight up to Vlad at lunchtime and asked him to go out with her. There was no way Vlad could refuse. Kelsey was the popular girl in their year. She had long blonde hair, and her lips were always full and shiny with gloss.  
  
The other boys in their class would give their right arm to go on a date with Kelsey Peterson.  
  
Vlad's right arm was still intact, and he'd been on ten dates with her now. Tonight was the eleventh. Robin had counted them because every time Vlad went out with Kelsey it was in place of hanging out with him. Robin thought of them together at the cinema, sitting close and laughing, and his stomach twisted.  
  
His mam looked over at him curiously and Robin looked away deliberately. He didn't want her to work it out.  
  
He was jealous.

* * *

Over the next few weeks Vlad spent more and more time with Kelsey. He sat with her at lunchtimes and held her hand under the table. After school Vlad would kiss her goodbye at the school gates before walking home with him.

Robin couldn't bear to watch it, the way Vlad tucked her hair behind her ear and smiled at her like she was the most important person in his life. Before Kelsey had gotten in the way Vlad had used to smile at him like that.  
  
He missed it.  
  
Every time he arranged to do something with Vlad, Kelsey ruined it. If they stayed in to play computer games she would come round and sit too close to Vlad, running her fingers through his hair until Robin felt so uncomfortable he went home. If they went to the arcade Kelsey was always there with her own friends and Vlad would have to go and talk to her.  
  
When Vlad had been seeing Kelsey for almost three months Robin lost his temper.  
  
"You never want to hang out with me anymore!" He protested after Vlad had broken another arrangement to see Kelsey instead.  
  
Vlad looked shocked. "That's not true. You're my best friend."  
  
"Best friends don't ditch each other for girls." Robin told him, anger making him clench his fists and raise his voice.  
  
"You can come with us if you want," Vlad said, "we're only going to the youth club."  
  
Vlad just didn't understand, Robin realised. Couldn't see that he wanted to spend time with Vlad on his own. If Vlad were a good friend, Robin thought bitterly, he wouldn't need to explain it to him.  
  
"Whatever." Robin said coldly, "You've never been a very good friend anyway."  
  
He stormed off before Vlad could respond. Before Vlad could see how much he already regretted saying it.  
  
Everything was in a mess.  
  
And it was all Kelsey's fault.

* * *

Robin felt guilty all evening, remembering the shocked look on Vlad's face when he'd shouted at him. If Vlad didn't speak to him again he didn't know what he'd do. Nobody else at school liked him. They were always saying things like, "Count, what are you hanging round with that freak for?"

Even his own brothers thought he was a freak. Without Vlad he'd have no one to talk to. Even if he did find someone, well, he'd never find another vampire to be his friend; that much Robin was certain of.  
  
Eventually he decided there was only one thing he could do. He would have to apologise to Vlad. He hated apologising, admitting he was wrong. But if it meant Vlad would stay his friend, it would be worth it.  
  
As he walked up the hill to the castle Robin thought about Kelsey. Before she had started making calf eyes at Vlad he had used to fancy her. Sometimes he had imagined what it would be like to kiss her, if she would taste of lip gloss and how soft her hair would be under his fingertips.  
  
He never thought of kissing her anymore. Instead he pictured her with Vlad, his hand on her waist. It made him feel strange, sick and angry and sad.  
  
He wanted Vlad to himself.  
  
He wished Kelsey would just disappear.  
  
Waiting for Vlad to open the door he felt suddenly nervous, heart leaping in his throat. What if Vlad told him to go away? When Vlad opened the door he looked surprised then smiled, bright and happy. The relief washed over him like a wave.  
  
Vlad had forgiven him.  
  
"I think she's given me the push," Vlad explained up in his bedroom. "She was supposed to knock for me, but she didn't. And she's not answering her phone."  
  
Vlad seemed upset and Robin felt bad for being so happy. If Kelsey had dumped Vlad, everything would go back to the way it was before.

* * *

At half past ten Robin reluctantly shrugged into his jacket and told Vlad he would see him tomorrow. They were sat close on Vlad's bed and Vlad smiled at him, the smile Robin had begun to think would never be directed at him again, and it took all of his willpower to get up and leave the room.

If he didn't go now he would be late and his dad would punish him. Most people's parents would ground them for being late, but not his dad. His dad would make him go outside and play rugby, or force him to go to his scout troop with all the year eight boys.  
  
His dad said he spent too much time with Vlad, holed up in his bedroom playing computer games. He said they should both go outside and get more fresh air. That he should be more like the twins.  
  
Robin couldn't think of anything worse than being more like his older brothers. All they ever did was play sports. There was no point to it. At least when he was playing computer games, Robin thought as he clattered down the stairs, he was using his brain.  
  
It was thinking about his dad that made him pause in the main hallway, glancing longingly towards the crypt. Vlad's dad would be down there in his coffin, he knew. Robin bit at his lip, hesitating for a long moment. Finally he came to a decision, being as quiet as he could as he walked through the archway and started down the narrow spiral staircase. It wouldn't hurt just to have a look.  
  
The further down Robin went, the colder it got. The wall sconces kept flickering, casting monster like shadows that made his heart beat faster in his chest. Once he stumbled and had to put a hand out to keep his balance. The wall felt wet and slimy beneath his palm.  
  
Robin had always wanted to be a vampire, even before Vlad came to Stokely. He had read every book about them in Stokely library and filled countless exercises books with stories and sketches. When Vlad became a real vampire Robin hoped that Vlad would bite him. That way they would be best friends forever.  
  
He knew he was almost at the bottom when it got lighter, the candles from the crypt casting light up the stairwell. Robin slid along the last few steps cautiously, careful to keep out of sight. Vlad's dad was unpredictable; Robin didn't want to end up as a vampire snack.  
  
The thought brought a smile to his face, he imagined rows and rows of colourful wrappers emblazoned with 'vampire snack'. Like chocolate bars on display at the newsagents he and Vlad always visited after school. He edged around the corner and the smile fled along with all the warmth in his body.  
  
The Count wasn't in his coffin. He was stood, long finger-nailed hands digging into someone's shoulders.  
  
A girl's shoulders.  
  
Robin felt weak, like his knees had turned to jelly and he might collapse to the floor. The girl turned her head away, her eyes bright with fear as they met his, and Robin had to cling to the wall for support.  
  
It was Kelsey.  
  
He had to do something. Anything. The Count leaned in closer, mouth wide, and then it was too late. Fangs sinking easily into the pale flesh of Kelsey's neck. She tried to struggle, the movements slow and laboured, as if she were under water.  
  
Robin couldn't move. It felt like he was frozen to the spot, powerless to stop it.  
  
And then she fell still, her whole body going limp so that she hung from Vlad's dad's hands like a rag doll. The Count looked up then, eyes black and blood smeared across his chest. He hissed and the noise made Robin jump, shocking his limbs into co-operation.  
  
He took the stairs two at a time, running and running without ever turning back. There was nothing he could do now anyway. It was too late.  
  
Kelsey was dead.

* * *

"Is everything okay?" His mam asked when he got in, her tone the one she had used to ask when he came in from school with bruises and blood on his shirt collar. He nodded and lied and stumbled to his bedroom.

Robin lay on the bed fully dressed, arms wrapped around himself in an attempt to stop the shaking. His heart was still pounding like he was running a marathon. He had no idea what to do.

Every time he closed his eyes he saw the fear in Kelsey's eyes, the pleading. She had wanted him to help her and he had done nothing. Now she was dead. He wanted to be sick.  
  
He should call the police, report it. But what would he say? Nobody would believe there were vampires in Stokely. They would think he was making it up, wasting police time. Or, worse, they might think he did it himself. All the boys in school would tell them about the cape he sometimes wore to school and Mr. Perkins would show them all the drawings he'd done of vampires for art.  
  
His dad would say that he wouldn't put it past him and his mam would cry.  
  
No, he couldn't go to the police.  
  
Chloe, his sister, would think of something. But she didn't remember about Vlad. They had had to make her forget about vampires. She might force him to go to the police anyway. She wouldn't understand that he couldn't. Robin wished Vlad's sister, Ingrid, were there instead of Transylvania. She was heading the Council for Vlad until he was old enough to do it himself.  
  
She would never have let it happen, she knew how much trouble it would cause.  
  
Maybe he should tell Vlad. Robin knew straight away that he couldn't. Vlad would be devastated. If he found out what his dad had done they would move back to Transylvania and Robin would never see him again.  
  
Vlad was the only friend he'd ever had. The only friend he was ever likely to have. Vlad could never find out about it.  
  
Robin sat up, the shaking finally subsiding as his mind formed a plan.  
  
He knew what he had to do.

* * *

"Kelsey?" Mr. Jenkins looked up from the register, "Kelsey Peterson, has anyone seen her?"

Robin stared at the desk, every muscle tense. He was afraid they would be able to see it on his face. The guilt. He looked at his hands, at the dirt under his fingernails and clenched his eyes shut, holding his breath until Mr. Jenkins gave up and went on to the next name.  
  
As soon as the bell went he went straight to the toilets and washed his hands under the hot tap, scrubbing and scrubbing until they were red and sore.  
  
They still weren't clean enough.  
  
At lunchtime Vlad sat next to him, worry written all across his face.  
  
"Are you alright?" He asked quietly, touching one hand to Robin's, turning it over carefully to look at the scald marks that hadn't faded. Robin remembered Vlad holding Kelsey's hand and swallowed thickly.  
  
"I'm okay."  
  
Vlad didn't look convinced. "If you want to talk about it, I'll listen." He took his hand away, "If it's about me and Kelsey," Vlad hesitated, "I am sorry."  
  
Robin forced a smile. "It's nothing." Vlad changed the subject but Robin knew he hadn't bought it. It was one of the things he liked about Vlad. He always thought of other people's feelings. Robin tried to but he always seemed to get it wrong.  
  
His last lesson was art and Mr. Perkins asked him if he wanted to go home. Robin glanced at his reflection in one of the mirrors they used for drawing self portraits and understood why. His eyes were ringed with dark circles and his skin was almost as pale as Kelsey's had been.  
  
He told Mr. Perkins he was okay, that he just hadn't slept very well.  
  
That was two lies. He hadn't slept at all. Instead he had gone back to the castle, had crept down to the crypt for a second time. Kelsey had not been lying on the ground like he had thought she would be, limbs sprawled carelessly. Her body was tense and contorted. Her fingers clenched into claws.  
  
She had tried to crawl for help.  
  
When he had left she hadn't been dead. He could have saved her. He should have saved her.  
  
Robin looked down at the piece of art he had been working on for the last three lessons. It was a picture of a vampire feeding on a pretty girl's neck. He didn't want to finish it anymore. He didn't even want to think about vampires.  
  
Every time he closed his eyes he saw Kelsey's face, streaked with dirt and framed by her matted hair. Her eyes were slightly open when he laid her in the shallow hole he had managed to dig. It had felt like she was watching him. Accusing him.  
  
Even with his eyes open she wouldn't go away.  
  
She was dead.  
  
And it was his fault.

* * *

"Isn't it terrible?" His mam asked when he got home from school the next day. Robin tensed, not sure what she might say next. His mam didn't seem to notice anything wrong with him. "About Kelsey Peterson, her mam and dad must be so worried."

Robin couldn't hold her gaze, and flinched when his mam touched a hand to his shoulder.  
  
"I don't know what I'd do if you went missing, Robin."  
  
"I'm not going anywhere," he told her, his voice sounding scratchy. Robin wished he could tell her the truth. That she would hug him and tell him it would all be okay.  
  
Instead he said nothing and went to his room.  
  
That night he dreamt he was back in the crypt, frozen as he watched the Count lower his head, fangs glinting in the candlelight. But this time it wasn't Kelsey in his arms. It was his little sister, Chloe. She looked at him, pleading, and still he did nothing.  
  
Nothing as the blood was drained from her body.  
  
Nothing as she crawled across the floor for help.  
  
Nothing as she lay there alone, dying, her heart beating for the final time.  
  
He woke up screaming and his mam came and hugged him. She stroked his hair like she had when he was very young, and told him everything would be alright. It didn't work this time though.  
  
Because he knew it was a lie.

* * *

He was afraid to go to sleep after that, tried to force himself to stay awake. It didn't help. It felt like the eyes of the people in his drawings were watching him. Judging him. Just like Kelsey.

Robin took them all down and hid them under his bed.  
  
Kelsey's mam and dad made an appeal on television. Her mam could hardly speak for crying, and her dad's accent sounded much stronger than it did in real life. They said they wouldn't be angry with Kelsey if she had run away, that they just wanted to know she was safe.  
  
They begged anyone who had information to tell the police.  
  
Vlad came round after it had been on television, and his eyes were rimmed red as if he had been crying. Robin felt angry at him for not knowing. For going out with Kelsey in the first place. If he had said no to her then none if it would have happened.  
  
They went to Robin's bedroom and Vlad didn't even comment on the bare walls. Instead he sat on Robin's bed and fidgeted, twisting his hands together.  
  
"Do you think it was my fault?" He asked suddenly, his voice almost a whisper. "Do you think she ran away because of me?"  
  
Robin couldn't feel angry with Vlad then. "Don't be stupid, she really liked you," he told Vlad, cringing at the use of the past tense.  
  
Vlad swiped at his eyes viciously, spreading moisture across his cheeks. "I know." He met Robin's gaze and his voice cracked, "But I don't think I liked her that much back."

* * *

It was three weeks after Kelsey died that Robin dared to set foot in the castle again. The police said it was now a murder investigation. They were searching for Kelsey's body.

They had questioned Vlad at the police station, taken his fingerprints and asked him if he had done anything to upset her. Vlad said he needed to talk about it with someone and Robin volunteered.  
  
Perhaps if he did enough nice things to make up for it everything really would be okay.  
  
When he knocked at the door Vlad's dad pulled it open, looking him up and down in the same slightly disdainful way he had a hundred times. This time Robin didn't think it was cool. It scared him.  
  
"I've been meaning to have a word with you," the Count said languidly, studying his fingernails then fixing him with a piercing look. "I think you know what I'm talking about."  
  
Robin swallowed and shrank back instinctively.  
  
"I got a bit," the Count waved one hand about casually, "carried away the other night. The best thing you can do is forget all about it."  
  
Robin nodded. He thought of the nightmare he had had about Chloe and knew he had no other choice. It had never occurred to him before that night, but the danger had been there all along.  
  
"Don't worry," the Count said as Vlad approached, clapping him on the back and making him jump, "It won't happen again."  
  
Once they were upstairs, in Vlad's bedroom, Vlad asked,  
  
"What was my dad talking about?"  
  
"Nothing." Robin forced a smile. It felt more like a grimace. For once Vlad was too preoccupied to notice.  
  
"Had to speak to the police again today." Vlad told him, running a hand through his hair. He looked ill, Robin thought. "I told them it was my fault she ran away."  
  
Robin didn't say anything. Couldn't have even if he wanted to. His tongue felt like it was stuck to the roof of his mouth.  
  
"I had an argument with her," Vlad went on, and Robin could see that he was crying again. "After you shouted at me."  
  
"I'm sorry – " Robin tried to apologise. It didn't seem nearly as hard to say now. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. It couldn't change anything anyway. Vlad kept talking,  
  
"I didn't think you even cared," Vlad shook his head, the words speeding up and merging together, "honest, I didn't. But then you said you did and I had to tell her."  
  
"Tell her what?"  
  
Vlad wasn't making sense; Robin couldn't work out what he was trying to say.  
  
"I broke up with her," Vlad said, face scrunched up as if the memory hurt. Robin knew how that felt. He heard Vlad swallow, watched as he wiped at his face and took a deep breath, trying to calm down. Vlad looked at him, eyes solemn,  
  
"I broke up with her because I wanted to be with you."

* * *

Later they were lying together on Vlad's bed, Robin's arms wrapped around Vlad, pulling him close so Vlad couldn't see his expression. Even through his layers of sweaters Robin felt cold. Had felt cold ever since that night. He pressed closer to Vlad, soaking up his body heat and trying not to think of the fact that one day – soon - Vlad would be ice cold too.

"What if they never find her?" Vlad asked, voice thick with unshed tears. "What if something terrible has happened to her and it's all my fault?"  
  
"It's not your fault," Robin said, his own voice sounding flat and numb. He tried again, "You didn't do anything to her."  
  
You didn't leave her to die, he thought.  
  
He wanted to tell Vlad. To hear Vlad tell him it wasn't his fault. That he hadn't meant to do it.  
  
But what if Vlad didn't believe that? What if Vlad did blame him for her death? All this time he had been so worried Vlad would be angry at his dad; he hadn't considered how angry Vlad would be with him. Robin squeezed Vlad tighter, as if it could bind them together forever.  
  
Then, even if Vlad hated him, he would never leave him.  
  
"Do you miss her?" Robin blurted when the silence had begun to stretch.  
  
"I do," Vlad said, in a way that made a 'but' imminent, "but not as much as I would miss you." Vlad's hand found his and Robin clenched it gratefully. "Does that make me a bad person?"  
  
For a split second Robin almost said 'you're a vampire', jokingly, like he would have done before Kelsey asked Vlad out. Then it was gone and he was appalled at himself. Afraid at how true the statement would have been. Instead he moved until he could kiss Vlad, in the same way he had once imagined kissing Kelsey.  
  
He didn't taste of lip gloss and Robin's stomach churned all the way through it, the image of Kelsey's blue tinged lips seared behind his eyelids. Vlad laid his head on Robin's chest afterwards, above his heart.  
  
Vlad fell asleep there, his breathing evening out and Robin stared unseeingly at the ceiling, thought of Kelsey and her lifeless eyes seeing nothing but the soil covering her.  
  
This was what he had wished for, he thought suddenly. For Kelsey to disappear. To have Vlad to himself.  
  
He had got what he wanted.  
  
And this - the fear pressing against the edges of his conscience, the constant guilt gnawing at his soul – was how he was going to have to pay for it.

**Author's Note:**

> As ever, feel free to chat / hit me with prompts over on Tumblr [@serenwib](http://serenwib.tumblr.com/) or Twitter [@falsteloj](https://twitter.com/falsteloj). :)


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